


a moment of madness

by falloutmars



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M, friendship jeronica, if/when veronica and jughead find out, post episode 4x17, talks of cheating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23689297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falloutmars/pseuds/falloutmars
Summary: Jughead and Veronica in Pop’s after finding out about Betty and Archie.A 4x17 fic.
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones, talks of betty/archie
Comments: 19
Kudos: 77





	a moment of madness

**Author's Note:**

> just a little angst i wrote after the leak in response to the b*rchie. still fits after watching the episode unfortunately. 
> 
> i won't say enjoy because lets be real you probably won't.
> 
> (warning for alcohol)

Sitting with Veronica, and Veronica alone, in a booth in Pop’s - the diner she _owns_ \- is not something Jughead thought he’d voluntarily do. Sure, it happened on the odd occasion when the others turned up late, and sure, it had gotten less awkward and more friendly between them over time, but Jughead never thought he’d want to spend time with her one on one. 

He likes Veronica. They’re similar in a lot of ways, and worlds apart in many others. But after years of forced friendship due to their significant others, Jughead has grown to happily be able to call Veronica one of his closest friends.

Still, alone time at Pop’s hadn’t been on the cards. Until now. 

They’re drinking milkshakes. Not their usuals and not ones on the menu. Veronica calls it a maple surprise, whipping them up herself in a matter of seconds. The first sip is sweet. Almost sickly sweet. There’s a familiar note of vanilla, to begin with, and then a hint of maple syrup. It isn’t until the second sip that he gets her secret ingredient - or, the surprise. Rum. He thinks it blended into the sweetness at first, but now he gets the hit. It burns, but it feels good. 

Veronica downs half of hers in less than a minute, swallowing thickly when she looks at him. “Fuck,” she mumbles. “Sorry about the rum, Jughead. I should’ve asked.”

He shrugs her off. “It’s needed.”

She nods, turning her attention back to the remainder of her milkshake, allowing a heavy silence to fall over them. 

He doesn’t want to think about the day’s events, yet he can’t seem to not think about them. It’s no surprise, really. His girlfriend _did_ cheat on him with his best friend. 

Fuck. His girlfriend cheated on him with his best friend. 

Looking up at Veronica, he notices that she’s finished her milkshake now, and is staring at him with a sadness he’s never seen in her before. She looks exactly how he feels. Heartbroken. Worn out. Angry. Tired. 

“How could they do this to us?” she asks, confusion evident in her voice. “After we thought you died… Betty was so upset. I’ve never seen her like that before.”

“Yeah,” he scoffs. “She even told me and my former classmates that not knowing if I was gonna pull through was the worst 36 hours of her life. Bullshit.”

He bites back tears now, but anger flows through his veins. After everything they’ve been through together. Serial killers, town-wide civil wars, murdering board games, organ-harvesting cults, her being framed for his murder. He thought they were stronger than this. He stupidly thought their love was enough. 

_I guess not_.

He turns his attention back to Veronica. Tears are rolling down her face and she makes no effort to wipe them away. The sight of her looking so broken is the final straw. He allows the tears he bit back just a second before to fall. It doesn’t bring him any relief, but at least it’s an outlet. A healthier one at that. 

“I asked him, Jughead,” Veronica sobs, clutching her now-empty glass. “I asked Archie point-blank if he felt anything.” She pauses, taking a deep breath. “And he said no! That I was the only one for him! Not her, not anyone else in his long string of women! Me!”

Honestly, Jughead doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t know how to comfort her. Maybe just being here is enough. He knows she’s been having a tough time with her family recently, so this on top of that seems so… harsh. Harsh of Archie to do that to her; harsh of _Betty_ to do that to her. She deserves better. 

He sighs loudly. “I’m sorry, Veronica. I know it’s not much, but I am.”

Her sobs subside slightly. “No offense to you,” she says, sniffing. “But it would be so different if it wasn’t Betty.”

He knows the feeling, managing to force out a _yeah_.

Veronica, tears now almost stopped, pushes his still mostly full milkshake glass towards him. “Drink up. And talk,” she all but demands. And then softer, “It’ll make you feel better, I promise.”

He nods. He’d learned ( _from Betty_ , he thinks bitterly) that Veronica will almost always get her own way. There’s not much point of trying to fight her. Not that he particularly wants to - she’s only trying to help. So he sips the milkshake while he wonders where to start. 

“I-” And then he breaks down in a pile of sobs. He forgets that they’re in the middle of Pop’s, no longer caring who sees. “I love- _loved_ her,” he weeps. “No, I do- I still love her, Veronica. We live- oh fucking hell.”

“What?” 

“I- I’ll have to face her.” He hides his face in his hands, trying to control his breathing. “We live together,” he mumbles. “We share a fucking bed.”

Veronica sighs sympathetically, her hand tugging his away from his face. “Do you want to stay with me, Jughead? We have plenty of space.”

He chuckles slightly in the midst of his cries. “No, I can’t avoid her forever.”

“Jug,” she begins, her use of his nickname unusual. “Their bedroom windows face each other. _Your_ bedroom window. Are you sure…?”

“Fuck.” 

He forgot. How did he forget that? How can he go back there? He’d be so close to both of them. And he isn’t sure he wouldn’t go round and punch Archie’s stupid fucking face. He bets if he rang Sweet Pea, he’d take great pleasure in doing it for him, too. 

But he can’t. That would only make a bad situation worse. 

“I’m a fucking idiot,” he tells Veronica, who just smiles sadly at him. “From the beginning, it was always him.” Anger seeps into his voice as he continues. “No matter how many times I asked her, she’d always say she didn’t love him anymore, never loved him like she loves me. But all along, I’ve been second fucking choice.” 

She listens to every word he says, a small frown on her face. Once he pauses, she says, “If you're an idiot, so am I. We both believed their lies, Jughead.”

And of course, she’s right. 

Maybe they’ve both been stupid, maybe they should’ve known from the start. But they didn’t. They thought things would work out. Her with Archie, him with Betty. Two couples, four friends. All destroyed in a moment of madness.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm sorry for the angst. if you want something lighter and fluffier to read, i uploaded chapter 12 of serendipity earlier. 
> 
> thank you for reading even if i did make you sad.


End file.
